The FCC bids for greater regulatory authority, even as it tries to convince telecoms to embrace spectrum auction

National
broadband was one of the key
campaign promises that President Barack Obama made in 2008.
His Federal Communication Commission chief, Chairman Julius
Genachowski, has tried to deliver on that promise, but has a
difficult path ahead.

The FCC's plan to is to take
spectrum from television, re-auction it to wireless companies,
and use part of the proceeds to finance new lines for the broadband
project. The bid is complicated by the FCC's regulatory war
with the same telecoms it hopes to sell spectrum too.

Last
month, the FCC lost the
first round in its battle with Comcast over internet throttling.
The FCC is trying to stop Comcast from blindly throttling certain
kinds of traffic like peer-to-peer connections, commonly used for
sharing music and other media. A U.S. Federal Court ruled that
the FCC did not have the power to stop Comcast from doing so.

Now
the FCC has reclassified
broadband internet from an information service to a
telecommunications service, a move that should grant it greater
regulatory authority. The FCC promises it will not abuse the
greater regulatory authority its seizing. The FCC's top
attorney, Austin Schlick, comments, "We have never gone back on
forbearance. We have a very strong track record."

Chairman
Genachowski, who promised to apply regulation with a "light-touch",
added that the approach was only an "interim" step and that
he would prefer Congress to officially clarify the regulatory
situation.

Verizon Communications Inc executive vice president
Tom Tauke says that the plan to step up regulation will hurt
the national broadband project. He writes, "The regulatory
and judicial proceedings that will ensue can only bring confusion and
delay."

Republican FCC members Robert McDowell and
Meredith Attwell Baker were also critical of the effort. They
write in a joint statement, "This proposal is disappointing and
deeply concerns us. It is neither a light-touch approach,
nor a third way."